Rockies agree to four-year, $10-million deal with Jimenez

Rockies general manager Dan O’Dowd was determined to lock up Ubaldo Jimenez long-term in a short window of time. Colorado signed the right-hander to a four-year, $10-million contract today with club options for 2103 at $5.75 million and 2014 for $8 million.
That brings the value of the contract to $22.75 million if the options are exercised.
“This is something that Ubaldo had interest in doing,” O’Dowd told me today. “We know him, what he’s about. He’s grown up before our eyes.”
The deal buys out his first two arbitration seasons and gives the Rockies a chance control him in his final arbitration season and first year of free agency. The Rockies’ used James Shields’ contract of Tampa Bay as a comparison.
Jimenez will make as follows: $750K this season, $1.25M in 2010, $2.8M in 2011, $4.2M in 2012 with a $1M buyout if options aren’t exercised. The contract also incudes incentives for innings pitched.

Jimenez, who went 12-12 with a 3.99 ERA in his first full season last year, had told The Denver Post in September that he was open to a long deal. Pitchers are usually more agreeable to buying out some arbitration years because of the injury risk. O’Dowd said today that he wanted to get the contract talks done before spring training, feeling that negotiations with Brad Hawpe, Manuel Corpas and Matt Holliday in March last season became a distraction.
“Even you can win in those situations, you can lose because it takes the focus away from the team and puts it on the individual,” O’Dowd said.

This continues a pattern of locking up young core players, including Hawpe, Corpas, Tulowitzki, Jeff Francis and Aaron Cook.